How to Balance School and Personal Life

As a Penn Foster student I face a great challenge in which I have to balance my studies with my family. I am a first time distance education student, and I am learning as I go how to manage my time wisely. I would like to encourage other students by giving my experiences and advice to help them succeed at accomplishing their education goal. I am married and have two daughters one is 18 months and the other is 3 years old. My husband is in the Coast Guard and is gone 2 weeks out of the month. I have a English Bulldog that loves attention and going everywhere the family goes. My husband and I are Foster Parents thru the state, and are licensed for one child in our home at a time. I am also committed to the church every Wednesday night as a children’s ministry leader. I am not working at this time, and taking advantage of this time to take online classes to earn my associate’s degree. Being a coast Guard family we move every two or three years and Penn Foster College gives me the opportunity to go back to school. Another challenge I have had to face is I have not been to college in 9 years and had forgotten a lot. I got used to my busy routine of family and friends and then I added school on top of that. My time for studies is very limited due to taking care of my children all day. I have about two hours after my children go to bed to study and take exams. My three year old daughter goes to pre-school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, she has ballet on Mondays, and we go to church on Sundays and Wednesdays. My husband is not home very much because of his work and we like to spend a lot of time together as a family when he is home. Being a foster parent also brings a lot of responsibility with it because you never know when you might get a call from a case worker. You have to drop everything you are doing for this child and go pick them up for their safety and well being. This usually happens at the most inconvenient times, and puts the whole families’